Новости за 17.02.2023

A look at the best news photos from around the world.

Kosovo feted 15 years of independence with a parade of soldiers and police cheered by thousands in Pristina on Friday with an eye to a normalization deal with Serbia, key to stability in a region still scarred from ethnic wars in the 1990s. Crowds waving Kosovo and Albanian flags lined a main street in the capital as police and troops marched past, but there were no celebrations in the country's north where minority Serbs have long resisted Pristina's authority. "Our independence was achieved through struggle and sacrifice... Читать дальше...

VOA Connect Episode 266 - We follow two Immigrants who are bringing their traditions to their adopted communities.

Follow Ghanaian drummer and singer, Kofi Mawuko, as he bridges cultural differences and makes a living in his adopted hometown, Chattanooga - a small city in southeast Tennessee. Reporter | Camera | Editor: Arturo Martinez

A group of militants armed with automatic weapons and bombs assaulted police headquarters in Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi on Friday evening, triggering a fierce gunfight with security forces and leaving several people dead.     At least two assailants and a police officer were reported killed in the ongoing attack, though there was no official confirmation of the casualties. Hospital officials confirmed receiving at least seven injured people, including security force members.    The outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan... Читать дальше...

Meet Shrikant Sabnis, a yoga guru who is defying the myth of aging with challenging yoga poses that very few can master. Discover his contribution to a global community during the early days of the pandemic and the importance of community in yoga. Producer | Camera | Editor: Lisa Vohra

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was in Estonia on Thursday, where the United States and NATO allies have increased force numbers as part of a push to deepen defenses across NATO’s eastern flank. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb gained exclusive access to US soldiers in Estonia, as she crisscrossed the country to learn more about its defense. Camera: Mary Cieslak Video Editor: Mary Cieslak

A protest over water shortages in the southern Ethiopian town of Welkite turned deadly when, witnesses say, security forces opened fire on protesters, killing at least two people. The protest was started early Thursday morning by a group of elderly women holding jerry cans for carrying water and, according to one witness, gradually swelled to thousands of people.  Adane Kifle, a Welkite resident who was at the protest, told VOA Friday that security forces started telling people to sit down after talking with some protesters. Читать дальше...

A Kenyan government operation to disarm warring parties in the troubled Rift Valley region is off to a slow start.  Media reports say a three-day amnesty period for people to hand in illegal weapons resulted in the handover of just three guns. Kenyan police did arrest a local lawmaker for allegedly funding bandits and cattle rustlers, who have wreaked havoc in the region.  Kenyan government forces launched an operation this week to crack down on chronic violence in the Rift Valley. Most of the... Читать дальше...

China imposed trade and investment sanctions Thursday on Lockheed Martin and a unit of Raytheon for supplying weapons to Taiwan, stepping up efforts to isolate the island democracy claimed by the ruling Communist Party as part of its territory. Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Technologies Corp.'s Raytheon Missiles and Defense are barred from importing goods into China or making new investments in the country, the Ministry of Commerce announced. It said they were added to the “unreliable entity”... Читать дальше...

A multinational force of troops from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria, on Thursday handed five children rescued from Boko Haram over to Cameroon. The Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin Commission says scores of children were rescued last year in operations against the militant group. Cameroonian authorities are working to locate the children's parents. The Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin, or MNJTF, that is fighting the jihadist group, says the five... Читать дальше...

Turkish rescuers pulled a teenage boy alive from the rubble of a collapsed building 260 hours after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck southeast Turkey and Syria, Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported Friday.   Fourteen-year-old Osman Halebiye was taken to a hospital in Antakya.   Later, two men, Mehmet Ali Sakiroglu, 26, and Mustafa Avci, 33, were rescued from the same building's rubble, news agency DHA said.    After he was rescued, Avci saw his newborn baby on a cellphone call with his parents, according to Reuters. Читать дальше...

Videos posted on social media purport to show protesters marching in several cities in Iran on Friday. The videos, which could not be independently verified, purport to show protests in Iran's capital, Tehran, and in the cities of Arak, Isfahan, the group Human Rights Activists in Iran said.  The demonstrations would mark 40 days since Iran executed two men on charges related to previous protests in the country. Protests initially erupted in September after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman... Читать дальше...

North Korea warned Friday of an unprecedented response if the United States and South Korea go ahead with planned joint military exercises, which have recently ramped up in response to North Korean weapons tests. In comments published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, North Korea’s foreign ministry predicted the Korean Peninsula “will again be plunged into the grave vortex of escalating tension” if the U.S.-South Korea drills go ahead. “In case the U.S. and south Korea carry into practice... Читать дальше...

A new Gallup poll shows that Americans’ satisfaction with the level of immigration into the United States has fallen to its lowest point in a decade. About 63% of the respondents said they were dissatisfied with immigration. The poll was conducted January 2-22 as part of an annual poll done since 2001 on many issues. In January 2022, overall satisfaction with immigration stood at 34%. This past January, the number dropped to 28%. In 23 years of polling, the lowest satisfaction percentage, 23%... Читать дальше...

A farmworker charged with killing seven people last month in back-to-back shootings at two Northern California mushroom farms pleaded not guilty Thursday. Chunli Zhao, 66, is charged with seven counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Prosecutors said that on January 23 he opened fire at the Half Moon Bay mushroom farm where he worked, killing four co-workers and wounding another one. They said he then drove to a mushroom farm he was fired from in 2015 and shot to death three former co-workers. Читать дальше...

The Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S. foreign aid agency, recently crafted a new type of grant to promote cross-border economic integration and trade between two African nations, Niger and Benin. VOA Senior Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports. Cameras:  Philip Datcher and wires.

A report released by Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project accuses UNESCO of sanitizing the persecution of Uyghurs and destruction of their cultural heritage in China. UNESCO, which stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, "continues to acknowledge China as a protector of Uyghur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz heritage in the Uyghur region," says the report co-authored by Rachel Harris and Aziz Isa Elkun. In doing so, they write, the agency violates its own standards... Читать дальше...

President Joe Biden “remains a healthy, vigorous, 80-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief,” his physician said Thursday, after the White House released the results of his annual health examination. Dr. Kevin O’Connor said Biden had recovered from his “mild” case of COVID-19 last July, and that he “has not experienced any residual symptoms which may be considered to be ‘Long COVID.’”... Читать дальше...

Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, his family said on Thursday, nearly a year after the "Die Hard" franchise star retired from acting because of aphasia that had hampered his cognitive abilities.   “Since we announced Bruce’s diagnosis of aphasia in spring 2022, Bruce’s condition has progressed, and we now have a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia (known as FTD)," his family said in a statement posted on The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration website. Читать дальше...

Kenya aims to plant billions of trees in coming years to fight climate change and is enlisting mobile technology to help make it happen. The application JazaMiti, which means "fill with trees" in Swahili, tells users which trees to plant in specific areas, in hopes of increasing the tree survival rate. Juma Majanga reports from Nairobi, Kenya. Camera: Jimmy Makhulo.

Hundreds of residents of a small Ohio town met with state officials to discuss the health dangers they face after a train derailment earlier this month sparked a massive fire and unleashed toxic fumes. At a Wednesday night town hall, East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway tried to reassure citizens. "We need our citizens to feel safe in their own homes," he said, according to Reuters. Conaway and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine told CNN on Wednesday that air quality in East Palestine was "safe," but... Читать дальше...

Journalists covering the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey have reported being harassed, detained, or obstructed in their work. As the combined death toll for the powerful earthquake that struck cities in Turkey and Northern Syria reached more than 41,000 people, media rights organizations called on Turkish authorities to ensure that journalists are allowed to report freely. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has documented at least four journalists who were detained... Читать дальше...

The Somali government Thursday said its soldiers — backed by international partners and local clan militias — have killed upwards of 350 al-Shabab militants and wounded dozens more in different operations in the country’s south and central regions. VOA Somali was not able to verify the reported death tolls, and there was no immediate comment from the al-Shabab group through its spokesman or websites. According to Somali officials, the Somali National Army carried out operations in Hiiraan in Hirshabelle State... Читать дальше...

Caribbean leaders with the regional bloc CARICOM are focused on helping Haiti deal with multiple crises during a Bahamas summit this week. The group is discussing Haiti’s struggle with armed gangs, hunger, a cholera outbreak and the country’s political vacuum. As VOA's Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports, the bloc is expected to push for international assistance, including from the United States and Canada.